Buckle and cockeye.



No. 663,397. Patented Dec. 4, I900.

D. E. STONEBUBNER. BUCKLE AND cocKE'YE.

(Application filed June 80, 1898.)

'(No Model.)

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Tarps ilwritnn BUCKLE AND COCKEYE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 663,397, dated December 4, 1900.

Application filed June 30, 1898- Serial No. 6 84,874- (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, DAVID E. STONEBURNER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Baileys Gross-Roads, in the county of Fairfax and State of Virginia, have invented certain new and usefullmprovements in Buckles and Appliances for Tugs or Traces; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will en able others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention has reference to improvements in buckles or attachments for traces or tugs, in combination with devices for securing the same preferably to whiffletrees; and it consists of other novel features of construction, which will be hereinafter fully de scribed in the specification, elucidated in the drawings, and pointed out in the claim.

This device is equally as well adapted for securing to the hames, especially where heavy harness is employed by farmers.

The novelty of my device consists, mainly, in having an integral connection or link formed on the continuation of a buckle for embracing the free ends of a whiffletree.

It further consists in providing a hook for preventing the link from being detached from its pin or lug on a whiffletree.

My invention further consists in providing a central pin for securing a tug or trace in combination with loops integral with said buckle for holding a trace in alinement with its buckle connection.

hly invention further consists in having a central pin swiveled so that itcan be turned to more fully secure a trace or tug by means of lugs projecting from opposite sides of said central pin.

Heretofore buckles with rigid tongues were mostly straight, and when a horse would hold back suddenly the trace or tug would slack up, and consequently the trace was liable to bulge over the central pin or tongue. By

the construction of my improved device it is obvious no such detachment of a tug could occur, as the head of my central pin is oblong, and when the trace is passed over the pin it is turned from the opposite side of the buckle by a thumb-head, thus precluding any possibility of its detachment.

In the accompanying drawings, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views, Figure l is a perspective view of my improved tug, buckle, and whiffletree attachment. Fig. 2 is a horizontal section of my improved device, partly in elevation, secured to a portion of a whiffletree with a trace or tug therein. Fig. 3 is an inside view of my device,-exhibiting the central pin in full and also in dotted lines in opposite positions.

My invention consists of an arch-shaped buckle A, having openings or mortises in its opposite ends a and ct, respectively, for receiving the trace or tug.

keeps the tug G perfectly smooth and straight. Centrally located on said buckle is a pivoted pin or lug B, which extends entirely through the body of the buckle, where it terminates in a flange b, to which is secured or may be integral athumb-hold b for operating said lug B. On the bottom of said lug is also a flange b for giving a rigid bearing to said lug and also so that it will maintain its position at right angles to the tug or trace for which it is designed to hold and bear all the stress of the same. Formed on the end of said lug Bis an oblong flange B for preventing the trace from becoming detached, which may occur when said trace is slacked up for various reasons. (See Figs. 2 and 3, which fully illustrate said oblong flange B.) Secured to and preferably integral with said buckle A is a link .0, which is adapted to pass over the free end of a whiffletree D, as indicated at Fig. 2 of the accompanying drawings. To prevent the link 0 from becoming detached from the whiffletree, I provide a hook E, which is pivotally se cured to the buckle on its side by a headed rivet or screw 6. This hook is somewhat peculiar in its construction, as indicated at its upwardly-bent portion e, the object of which is to allow the trace G to pass under the body of said hook, while the pendent portion 6 of said hook must pass on the opposite side of said trace, so as to allow of its entering the hole in the end of the whiffietree D.

The trace is provided with a number of holes for receiving the pin or lug when necessary to change for horses of Varied size.

By this constrnction of having said mortises in alinement it As observed in Fig. 2, the free end g of the trace can project beyond the Whiffletree without any inconvenience to the driver when necessary to lengthen or shorten said trace or tug.

When necessary to attach or detach a trace or tug from my improved buckle, the trace is put through themortises a and a, respectively, the portion of the trace centrally located over the pin B rests upon the top of said pin, and the operator turns the thn m b-plate b, so as to bring the oblong flange B into the position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 3, when the tug is pushed in place over said flange B, the operator turning the thumb-plate, so that the flange will assume the position indicated in full lines in Fig. 3. The operation for releasing the trace or tug is similar to the abovedescribed means for putting it on or in said buckle.

Having described my invention, that which I consider as novel, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is

The herein-described buckle and trace-connector, consisting of the curved buckle-frame provided with end bars and openings for the trace, the cockeye at one end of said frame, the stud or button pivoted centrally in the buckle-frame and provided with a head adapted to be passed through an eye in the trace and turned to engage said trace, and a latch pivoted on the buckle-frame for engaging the end of the whiffletree, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

hi DAVID X E. STONEBURNER.

mark Witnesses:

H. D. KIRBY, GEO. W. MANKIN. 

